Zeenat Mahal (1823 – 17 July 1886) was a wife of the Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar and de facto regent of the Mughal Empire on behalf of her husband.
She greatly influenced the emperor and, after the death of crown prince Mirza Dara Bakht, she began promoting her son Mirza Jawan Bakht as heir to the throne over the Emperor's remaining eldest son Mirza Fath-ul-Mulk Bahadur. But due to the primogeniture policy of the United Kingdom, this was not accepted. She was suspected of poisoning the British Resident in Delhi, Thomas Metcalfe, in 1853 for meddling too much in palace affairs. The Hindu : A case of Delhi poisoning?
She resided at her own haveli, Zeenat Mahal, in Lal Kuan, old Delhi.
The grandchild of her and Bahadur Shah II is also buried alongside the couple. After remaining lost for many decades, the tomb was discovered during a restoration exercise in 1991.
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